New Shiite group threatens Iranian exiles in Iraq

BAGHDAD 
The head of a new Shiite militant group in Iraq has threatened to carry out more attacks on a refugee camp for Iranian exiles that was struck by dozens of rockets and mortar shells earlier this month.

Seven people were killed in the Feb. 9 attack on the camp near Baghdad airport that houses members of Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, the militant wing of a Paris-based Iranian opposition group. Iraq's government considers the MEK a terrorist group and wants its members out of country.

In a phone interview Tuesday, Wathiq al-Batat said his Iranian-supported Mukhtar Army group was behind the attack and said more are to come.

Al-Batat was a senior official in the Hezbollah Brigades. He announced formation of the new group, the Mukhtar Army, earlier this month.